7.09.2012

Perfect Professions By The Numbers

One of the most commonly asked questions on my livestreams is "what professions should I take". I've given this a lot of thought and today I'll be going over my "perfect world" list of professions based on how many characters you have to work with. Read on past the jump for the list.Notes

To create this lists I am working under the assumption that all characters are starting with zero professions. This list isn't meant to be a total "how to" on how to set up your professions. Most likely you already have characters with professions.

Please don't take this list as instructions for how you should change/rearrange your professions but rather the imaginings of someone who has spent time thinking of how best to rearrange these complex puzzle pieces.

Methodology

I am going to be listing what would I consider "optimal" professions according to how many level 75+ characters you have access to on one particular faction/server. (If you have multiple characters on each faction select the number you have on each faction independently.)

The professions I am selecting are based solely on the profit potential of the professions. In other words, I'm trying to pack as much gold-making potential into as small a space as possible.

As you go through the list pay attention to how the professions rearrange as you add more and more alts. It is a very interesting thought experiment. (In my case this wasn't a purely theoretical practice as I did have 10 level 85s on one faction.)

Also all Alchemy professions are set up as Transmutation Specialization.

The List

One Character

1 - Jewelcrafting & Enchanting

Two Characters

1 - Jewelcrafting & Enchanting

2 - Alchemy & Mining

Three Characters

1 - Jewelcrafting & Enchanting

2 - Alchemy & Inscription

3 - Mining & Herbalism

Four Characters

1 - Jewelcrafting & Enchanting

2 - Alchemy & Inscription

3 - Mining & Herbalism

4 - Blacksmithing & Tailoring

Five Characters

1 - Jewelcrafting & Enchanting

2 - Alchemy & Inscription

3 - Mining & Herbalism

4 - Blacksmithing & Tailoring

5 - Leatherworking & Skinning

(It should be noted here that, if you remove Engineering as an "essential"
profession, you can have all 10 "important" gold-making professions on 5
characters.)

While the above list might seem a bit extreme as the number of characters grows it is interesting to note that as the number of characters increases the professions start to spread into a common "Alchemy & Insert Profession Here" pattern. The reason for this are to take advantage of multiple gold-making daily transmute cooldown. I currently have 8 characters on my main faction and 4 of them are Transmute Spec Alchemists.
The other professions that work with multiples are a second Jewelcrafter (for more daily tokens), a second Engineer (for access to both Engineering specs) and Tailoring (for multiple daily cooldowns).

It might be good here to note professions that I consider you only need one copy of: Skinning, Leatherworking, Mining, Herbalism (preferably with Mining), Inscription, Blacksmithing.

Conclusion

So there you have it. My "perfect" layout of professions for 10 characters if I had to start completely from scratch. It should be noted that going from one number of characters to another may involve unlearning and learning professions.

As an example if you went from 2 to 3 characters in the list above you would drop Mining from character 2 and pick up Inscription.

Like I stated the above list is more of an interesting thought experiment rather than some sort of hard and fast rule.

I think that it is good every once and a while to sit back and look over your stable of alts and their professions and try to figure out if there is any way you could make it more efficient.

14 comments
:

Interesting post, I have just been doing a similar process on my 8 level 80+ toons. The biggest issue I am facing is I want/need to have a number semi-raid ready so balancing the gold making with the profession bonuses is the challenge. For example my bear tank is also my miner and herbalist mainly for the awesome flight form ability to pick and fly :).

Whewn I started WoW I put a lot of thought into my race/class/profession combinations.Blacksmith/Mining for my human Paladin so I never needed to buy mats and could make my own armor.Enchanting/Tailoring for my Human Priest. Make own armor and DE the crafting surplus from myself and others.Skinning/Leatherworking for my Dwarf Hunter. Collect own mats and make own armor.JC/Alchemy for my Drenai Shaman. Racial bonus to JC. Transmute my own gems for cutting.Herbalism/Inscription for my Night Elf rogue. Collect own inscription mats.Engineering/Mining for my gnome mage. Racial bonus for Eng, and collect own mats.

There is nothing I need to buy from other crafters, I am completely self sufficient, about the only things I buy are cheap goods to resell at a profit.

I wouldn't not buy from the AH even if self-sufficient, cheap mats are still cheap and save you some time in the long term. You are also take cheap mats from your competitors. Just like you I like to have gathering covered though.

As it is obvious i have prepared for the upcomming expansion by simply changing alchemy on most toons to a gathering profession, to minimize gold lost while leveling every character during the first critical weeks of mop.

I have most mats sitting in guildbank tabs waiting for the initial crafting mats explosion to be over in start of mop, so i can go back to my moneymaking profession setup.

I've gone with 1 of the crafting professions, but Jewelcrafting (2) and Alchemy (5). I find that 2 JC's together makes enough tokens to be able to cut what i want, when i want. And who can get enough Alchemists? ;P

Nice post. I might change things up for Mop inspired by this. But LW and Tailoring will prolly still be paid for services as I find them more annoying than fun. BS will prolly be added to my professions. Got a leveling kit ready to go up to Cata level.

1) If you want to >LFR raid with a toon, it really should not have mining, skinning, or hebalism. And most expacs not engineering.

2) A problem with MoP is the perfect farmer-dual gathering - currently looks like would have no use for any motes or spirits of harmony that drop.

3) The other reason for scribes is the BoA staff. Taking 20 days of c/ds to make a staff would gimp your DMC so much.

4) Also if your engineer is not the miner, you lose the engineering bonus (I miss the mote extractor)

After you get all profs, I think the only profs with leverage are alchemist and scribe. I have a second JC but that is a waste; for simplicity I prefer all the patterns on one toon. But at least the 2nd can buy the Chimera eye for both of them.